Invest Ottawa offers advice, mentors to help businesses boom

The national capital region’s economic development agency, which has a mandate to support small and medium-sized businesses as far away as Kingston, has developed a “triage” approach to assisting entrepreneurs.

Business people with an idea, a part-time operation, or executives from a fully functioning enterprise can walk into the Invest Ottawa offices and meet with a business specialist who will then determine their needs and what type of help to offer.

Business coaching, industry research, accounting assistance, university research contacts, venture capitalists and even entrepreneurs in residence can be assigned to help.

The move to triage incoming businesses was part of a massive makeover that took place at the organization in February 2012, when it changed its name from the Ottawa Centre for Research and Innovation.

With the name change came a new mandate: The organization went from boosting the local technology economy to acting as a lobby group and point of contact for all of the region’s entrepreneurs.

Those involved with the newly structured agency say the makeover has been welcomed and business is booming. “A majority of the companies we have coming through are just people looking to start a service business to put food on the table,” said Andrew Moffat, an entrepreneur in residence at Invest Ottawa.

“Our advice is early stage, just to get them going.”

He said more than 4,000 people attended Invest Ottawa workshops last year to learn how to start a new company. The organization puts on the workshops through its entrepreneurship centre, dedicated to helping fledgling businesses.

For people with bigger aspirations, the organization can team the individual with one of 10 entrepreneurs in residence, industry experts and successful business owners who work with the economic development agency to guide fledgling businesses and help them expand. The goal is to drive any type of economic growth within the region by supporting area entrepreneurs.

“Every mayor believes John Deere will come in and put 1,000 jobs in their city. That’s just not going to happen anymore,” said Bob Huggins, one of the entrepreneurs working at Invest Ottawa.

Mr. Huggins sold his newspaper archival company Paper Of Record to Google Inc. in 2008 for millions of dollars. “The knowledge-based industry is where there will be growth.”

Kevin Carroll, Invest Ottawa’s managing director of innovation, said what makes the organization unique among other economic development agencies in Ontario is its ability to get entrepreneurs exactly the help they need.

Overseas manufacturing and international competition has forever changed the landscape of Ottawa, which was known for creating technology titans. The future belongs to smaller more nimble firms, Mr. Carroll said.

“It’d be nice to grow a 1,000-person company locally, but it’s more likely we will see 30-, 50-people companies emerge,” he said. “You don’t need to be a multinational to take on the world any more.”

Invest Ottawa now has space to incubate as many as 40 companies, though it is currently hosting 36, and it is looking to increase that space to help more businesses.

The refocus on building businesses comes as Invest Ottawa rejigs the way it handles international business development. The organization now has a team of six industry experts whose job it is to attract business to the city from abroad.

Having the business development managers close by has been a boon for many startups, Mr. Carroll said. Being able to draw on manufacturing contracts abroad, take advantage of international research partnerships, or even secure funding from U.S. or European investors becomes much easier thanks to the contacts the business development managers provide.

Invest Ottawa is funded jointly by the City of Ottawa and the Ontario and federal governments.